Hear straight from experts what to expect, how to best prepare for tempests from the tropics

Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post
Updated ·2 min read

It's hurricane season and USA Today Network-Florida is inviting the public to watch a panel discussion Wednesday evening with storm experts, including a TV meteorologist who became famous for talking South Floridians through 1992 Hurricane Andrew from a darkened broadcast studio, emergency managers, and a Florida Power & Light official.

The discussion will be shown live on PalmBeachPost.com and 16 other USA Today Network-Florida news organization websites. It is a prelude to preparations for the 2024 hurricane season, which is forecast to be one of the most active on record with many predictions calling for more than 20 named storms.

The experts will offer guidance on evacuations, power restoration expectations, changes to the highly-watched "cone of probability" as well as forecasts for flooding. The forum will run from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m.

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A corvette is covered in sand from Hurricane Jeanne's storm surge outside the Ocean Rise condos on Hutchinson Island, Florida on September 26, 2004.
A corvette is covered in sand from Hurricane Jeanne's storm surge outside the Ocean Rise condos on Hutchinson Island, Florida on September 26, 2004.

Palm Beach Post reporter Kimberly Miller, who has two decades of experience covering hurricanes in Florida, along the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, will moderate the discussion, which will include questions from the audience.

The panel participants are:

  • Kevin Guthrie: Executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He has helped coordinate state responses through several major hurricane landfalls in Florida including 2022's Category 4 Hurricane Ian and 2023's Category 3 Hurricane Idalia.

  • Bryan Norcross: FOX Weather's hurricane specialist with more than five decades of experience as a meteorologist. He has previously worked for CNN, The Weather Channel and Miami-area television stations. In South Florida, Norcross is heralded for being the first to sound the alarm on the severity of Hurricane Andrew, which grew into a devastating Category 5 storm, and then broadcasting through the storm.

  • Mary Blakeney: The director of the Palm Beach County Public Safety Department's Division of Emergency Management since 2021. She served as the senior manager of the division where she has been involved in 11 emergency operation center activations and multiple other local incidents.

  • Tommy Strowd: Executive director and engineer for the Lake Worth Drainage District. The district maintains the water supply for more than 800,000 Palm Beach County residents and prevents flooding through the control of 500 miles of canals and 20 major water control structures.

  • Jamie Molnar: Executive director of emergency preparedness for Florida Power & Light. She oversees plans and processes related to emergency response, event mitigation and recovery.

Even if you are a long-time Florida resident, please join us to brush up on your preparation knowledge, find out what your evacuation zone is, and learn about the new hurricane forecast cone that will debut this season.

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hurricane season 2024: Palm Beach Post panel discussion

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